


the endless cycle of vengeance and death

by ScreechTheMighty



Series: We Could Be Immortals [15]
Category: Apex Legends (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, Not Canon Compliant, Note that Miraith is canon in this fic but it's not the focus so I didn't tag for it, PG-13 level with use of the One Allowed F-Word, Swearing, War Crimes, also Ashwin is here, but Miraith is canon in this fic, fair warning to any bangalore stans: bangalore gets dragged in this fic, see author's note for more details on that, the IMC sucks and you can quote me on that, titanfall references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:13:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25719376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScreechTheMighty/pseuds/ScreechTheMighty
Summary: It's Frontier Liberation Day, but not everyone is celebrating. OR: Anita Williams gets called out for her IMC affiliation because if the canon isn't going to do it, I will.
Series: We Could Be Immortals [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1436959
Comments: 16
Kudos: 19





	the endless cycle of vengeance and death

**Author's Note:**

> SO about that "not canon compliant" tag...basically, in light of Respawn not giving us a cohesive timeline, I came up with one of my own to suit the fanfic ideas I already head ([you can view it here if you'd like ](https://screechthemighty.tumblr.com/post/185765790058/hey-i-did-promise-id-share-my-rough-timeline-for)). This means some referenced events are not canon in Apex Legends and likely won't be, but since this is part of my own fanfic continuity I went with the ideas I came up with. Additionally, not all of the mentioned IMC war crimes in this fic ARE canon, but some are and some are headcanons I based off stuff that actually happened in the games. I'll break down the incidents, which ones are and aren't canon, and what canon they're inspired by (if any) in the ending author's notes.

It was quiet in the Lounge.

That came as a surprise to Wraith. It was Frontier Liberation Day, a holiday pretty widely celebrated in the Outlands. A lot of its residents were war refugees with a heavy Militia bias. They may not have moved back—roots too deep, nothing to go back to by now—but they were more than willing to party hard in celebration of what they saw as the IMC getting their asses handed to them. The end of the Frontier War was a bit more complicated than that, to be sure, but she wasn’t going to begrudge them their celebratory binge drinking. Not after everything they’d lost.

She’d been expecting that level of celebration at Elliott’s place. Instead, the mood was quiet—almost somber. She realized why the occupancy seemed so low. A lot of the chairs were taken, marked off with a black cloth and an empty glass. There was a place card in front of the glass. Wraith stopped by one of the seats at the bar to read the name.

_Christian Witt._

…oh.

She didn’t need to ask about the display. That told her everything.

There were a few other “taken” places at the bar. Ashwin Narita was sitting next to one of them. There was a bottle of water instead of a glass, and a place card that just read _Barker_. “...and that’s why we called the crazy son of a bitch _Fastball,_ ” he finished. He was spun a coin on the countertop; Wraith caught a glimpse of it as it hit the table. It looked like a sobriety coin. “If you were talking about him and BT, it was _Fastball Special._ ”

Elliott laughed. It was genuine, but Wraith could hear the somber edge to it. “ _Damn_. He never told me any of this.”

“He probably doesn’t like to talk about it. Even the good times were…y’know, not really _the good times.”_ Ashwin shrugged and picked up the coin. “War and all.”

“Yeah.” Elliott’s mood dropped visibly; it perked up when he saw Wraith. “Oh, hey!”

“Hey.” Wraith sat down next to Ashwin, after making sure the seat wasn’t “taken.” “Expected more people in here.”

“Eh. The real party is out in the public park. We decided to be the place to sad drink. Usual?”

“Please. Are you okay?” She wouldn’t have talked about it with company around, but she figured Ashwin knew. Family friend and all. “How are you holding up?”

“Keeping busy. It helps.” Elliott set her appletini down in front of her. “Mom’s coming by later. She wanted to say hi to some family first.”

Ashwin laughed nervously. “Uh, she’s not gonna rat me out for being here if she sees me, is she?”

“Probably not, but I’d still ask nicely.” Elliott glanced up at the door as it swung open. “…great.”

Wraith glanced over her shoulder. Bangalore was walking in. She looked hesitant when she saw the displays, but squared her shoulders and walked to the bar. Nothing about her dress said _former IMC,_ but she still got a few dirty looks from some of the patrons. She didn’t have to be in uniform. Everyone knew. “Babe, I’m gonna need you to punch me if I open my fat mouth,” Elliott said quietly. “I’m not in the mood for a fight.”

“I won’t punch you but I will deflect,” Wraith promised. “I don’t think she’s looking for a fight, either.” _She’s just incredibly opinionated and may have something to say about the date._

_Please don’t have anything to say about the date, Bangalore._

Bangalore sat down at an open seat at the bar. She didn’t try to get Elliott’s attention, not at first; she kept looking around the room, taking in the display around them. Eventually, she turned back around and ordered her usual.

Elliott gave her the beer without looking directly at her.

 _I should say something._ Elliott would need the distraction, and fast. “So, when did you say your mom was getting here?” she asked.

“Oh, uhm…I think in an hour. I’ll have to check…” He fumbled at his pockets for his phone. “She might get held up though. My uncle Alphonse likes to _talk_ …”

“Your mom worked with the Militia, right?” Bangalore asked suddenly. “R&D for the…”

“ _Don’t talk about my mom._ ”

Bangalore looked taken aback. Wraith hoped she would take the hint, but instead she kept talking. “I was just going to say…she made life hard for a lot of our guys. It was impressive work.”

“ _Good_.”

“ _Elliott,_ ” Wraith said. She grabbed his arm and squeezed it slightly, trying to make sure she had his attention. “Leave it alone.”

Elliott, thankfully, stopped. He physically turned away from Bangalore and cleared his throat noisily. “So, uh, are there…any other war stories he didn’t tell me about?” he asked Ashwin.

“Oh, loads,” Ashwin said. “I probably can’t tell you about half of them, but…” He tapped the coin against the bar, then straightened up. “Oh! Okay, so…there was this one time, right, Militia had called us in for support on Dauntless. We were a bit held up, so we got there late, right in the middle of all that bullshit…we’re trying to find a good place to drop and I see BT going toe-to-toe with a Ronin, no idea _where_ he picked up a sword, but I figure, hey, knife to a knife fight, right? Drop in with Ed, wasn’t even aiming for the Ronin, but I guess Cooper pushed him back at just the right time…” He slapped a hand on the table, hard enough to rattle Wraith’s glass. “ We crushed him like a tin can. And there’s this pause, and then your uncle says…” Ashwin leaned back and laughed. “He says, ‘We’re gonna tell everyone we timed that, right?’”

Elliott snorted. “ _Geez_.”

“I know, it’s messed up, gallows humor…”

“Who’s Ed?” asked Wraith. She was trying to form a mental image of the incident, but felt like she was missing a few pieces.

“Oh, sorry. My Titan, EJ-576. I called him Ed, sort for Edward. It’s a cartoon reference. He was a Ronin too, so I’m still kinda shocked that worked, but I guess you drop anything from a high enough distance at incredibly fast speeds and it’s a day-ruiner for the guy underneath.” Ashwin shrugged. “That was pretty much the only thing of note all day. Dauntless sucked.”

Bangalore muttered something under her breath.

It took Wraith a second to register what she’d said: _That’s for sure._ When she glanced the other woman’s way, Bangalore looked pensive. She did a double-take when she realized Wraith (and, possibly, Ashwin and Elliott) were looking at her. “What? Am I not allowed to say anything? We lost a lot of men that day, too. Good men.”

“… _I know_. I was there. Probably would’ve lost a lot less if whatever mud-for-brains your higher ups hired had just conceded three days earlier. SRS had them cornered. They didn’t _have_ to fight.” Ashwin waved his hand dismissively. “Something something _don’t negotiate with terrorists_ …yeah, I’m sure the guys who got sent home in body bags felt really good about that one.”

“Would you have conceded if it were you?” Bangalore shot back.

“No, but that’s because I don’t want to end up in a prison camp doing forced labor or being exposed to Ark energy or…whatever else they did in those things. Or being shot for desertion, whichever.”

“We didn’t _have_ prison camps, jackass.”

Something about the comment made Wraith’s chest twinge. She wanted to say something; she knew what she’d been through was nothing like a wartime prison camp, but if the IMC was willing to hold _her_ hostage like that, she could only imagine what they’d do to prisoners of war. But Bangalore didn’t know about that part of her life, because Wraith had gone out of her way to keep it a secret, and she didn’t especially want to go back on that.

Fortunately, Ashwin had a rebuttal.

“Except you _did_ , and I _saw them_.” He started counting off on his fingers. “Angel City…”

“That was a penitentiary.”

“It was a hellhole with more civil rights violations than I could name in one sitting. And even if you wanna split hairs about that being an actual prison, there’s still the multiple testing facilities on Typhon…”

Bangalore was already shaking her head. “Whatever Marder did was officially condemned by the IMC.”

“Officially condemned _three years after the war ended_.” A note of disbelief entered Ashwin’s voice. “They kept him on the payroll right up until he backstabbed everyone with Spyglass, _then_ suddenly he was over the line in experimenting on human beings. And even _then_ they had to get almost completely new Frontier leadership before someone condemned it. That _doesn’t count._ And it wasn’t just Marder. Militia tried to surrender on Aquarius. _Tried_. I saw the aftermath. You ever seen a mass grave, Williams, because _I have_. And that was under Titus, not Marder.”

Bangalore’s jaw clenched. Wraith thought, hoped, that maybe she would back off, but she pushed: “Real rich, hearing morals talk from a mercenary…”

Ashwin scoffed. “ _Please_.”

“…working under a _traitor_ …”

“Piss off.” Ashwin sounded suddenly, unexpectedly angry. Wraith didn’t think she’d ever heard him _actually angry_ before. “He wasn’t associated with you people when he founded the ACEs. No loyalty to go back on. And he had more of a moral backbone than anyone on your side I can think of, so you keep him out of your mouth.”

“You don’t know anything about us,” Bangalore snapped back. Wraith found herself glancing between the two of them, then back at Elliott. He was standing there, silent, listening but not directly looking at the conversation. “You think you can pass judgment when your hands as just as bloody?”

“ _Excuse me?_ ”

“What the hell do you call Demeter?”

“Mostly an accident, kind of a _warranted step_ to prevent further bloodshed, especially after Troy.”

“What about Troy?”

“…what about Troy…are you shitting me right now?”

“Troy was harboring insurrectionists…”

Ashwin got up abruptly. “Nope. I’m out. Someone else talk to her, I’m not doing it.”

Now Wraith was really confused. She knew the broad strokes of the war, it was impossible not to, but if she had known about Troy at one point, that memory was gone along with everything else. “What happened at Troy?” she asked quietly, hoping that Elliott would be able to answer.

Unfortunately, Bangalore heard. “There were Militia insurrectionists…”

“ _Civilians!_ ” Ashwin yelled over her. “ _Civilians_ in a _town of civilians_ that _your people_ slaughtered…”

“They were harboring an insurrectionist cell…”

“ _They were noncombatants!_ ”

“Yeah, and you seem perfectly fine with working under the leader of that operation now that money’s on the line _, merc_.”

That shut Ashwin up. Wraith saw his shoulders bob up and down, as if in memory of the deep breath he _would’ve_ taken as a human. She expected him to start yelling again. Instead, he turned around and walked for the door. “Whatever. I’m done. Hey, Happy _fucking_ Frontier Liberation Day, everyone!” he called on his way out. “ _Shit on a stick_ …”

The door shut behind him. After that it was quiet—almost deathly so. The entire mood had shifted, the somber feeling replaced by an air of contempt. If Bangalore felt it, she didn’t let on. She just turned back to her drink. “ _Prick_ ,” she muttered.

Wraith couldn’t help feeling irritated. She and Ashwin weren’t friends, not the way he was with Elliott, but he’d gone to bat for her before. That inspired enough loyalty to make her speak up. “You didn’t have to say that,” she said. “His reasons are his business, same with everyone. We don’t get to throw it in each other’s faces.”

“If he didn’t go parroting the Militia line, I wouldn’t have. It’s all bullshit. Keep committing acts of terrorism and then crying when there are consequences. Troy, Angel City, Persephone…”

_shut her up_

“It’s all the same.”

_shut her up **now**_

“Just because you _think_ you’re in the right doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want.”

**_elliott_ **

Wraith turned around.

Elliott was staring off into the middle distance. His face was unreadable—the kind of face he got when he was preparing for an interview, slipping out of _Elliott_ and into _Mirage._ When he ducked his head and turned his attention back to Bangalore, the look in his eyes wasn’t Mirage. But it wasn’t Elliott either. “Persephone, that was the Defense Front, right?” he said, calm and neutral. “Holed up in the northern settlements after they did a run on Gridiron?”

It was a ruse. Wraith _knew_ it was a ruse, but Bangalore didn’t know him like she did, so all she saw was affirmation. “ _Yes_. That’s right. Not technically Militia affiliated, but they weren’t exactly doing anything to rein them in.” She took a long sip of her beer. “Even if they put up a front about not liking their methods.”

Elliott nodded. “Right, that’s why you came in. Smoked them out.”

“Sure did. Clean operation. That was before my time, but I heard about it.”

“Did you have family there?”

_don't let her answer that_

Wraith grabbed Elliott’s arm again. “Elliott, I think…”

Too late. Bangalore, at least, looked suspicious now at the new line of questioning, and didn’t immediately respond. Elliott caught on and backtracked. “Sorry, I know, classified still, probably. That’s why I didn’t know about my _Tio’s_ service, you know? Lot he couldn’t tell me. I was just wondering because, uh…” He picked up a glass and started wiping it. The glass was completely clean. “…The Defense Front was in the north, right?”

“Yeah.”

“So, why’d they bomb the southern settlements?” Elliott’s eye contact was fleeting, his hands shaking, but his voice stayed level. “If the Defense Front was only in the north?”

Bangalore hesitated. Maybe she’d finally caught on to the shift in demeanor, but that didn’t stop her from answering. “…standard policy was to search out and eliminate any potential threats on a planet,” she answered carefully. “If they bombed the south, it’s probably because there were pockets of Defense Front making their way south.”

“But you got them all when they were up north. Battle of Black Sands. I learned about it in school. Completely eliminated the Defense Front’s forces on Persephone in one day.” His voice was starting to harden, the veneer of civility chipping away. “So, why’d you bomb the south? Just…what, making sure?”

There went that clenched jaw again. “It was standard policy,” she said, “if we were unsure about the status of other settlements.”

“Okay. Cool.” Elliott nodded. “And who told you that? Dad? Mom? Uncles or aunts? Grandpop?”

**_stop him_ **

She couldn’t, no matter how much the voices begged. Elliott’s mouth was moving and no force in the whole of the Outlands could stop it now. “Because here’s the thing, my mom was on Persephone. She’d lived there most of her life, right up until then, and she was pretty clear on the fact that none of the combatants in town were Defense Front. No one directly involved in the war until the Militia showed up, and that was _after_ you started bombing us. So, either your people screwed up big time, or…” He looked around the room. “Hey, can anyone refresh my memory on what _scorched earth policy_ means?”

“We didn’t have…” Bangalore hesitated. That hesitation said a lot. “We _had to be sure._ After what they did to Gridiron…”

“After what they did to Gridiron, that made it okay to carpet bomb farmsteads? Eye for an eye, right? That’s what the _good guys_ do, right?”

Bangalore straightened up and looked Elliott dead in the eye. “Listen, I’m sorry if your mom was in any danger, but…”

“My mom was fine, actually! She was great, fine and dandy, they had her off the planet before the IMC reached us. Me and my brothers, too. I was too little to remember, I was like, one, if that, but I know all about it. My dad never got on the bus with us. He wanted to stay behind, salvage whatever he could from our house and the crops so we wouldn’t be completely destitute when the smoke cleared. And he never came back, because instead of leaving well enough alone or attacking the actual Militia bases, they went after my home. Sneak attack. Mass casualties.” Elliott’s voice cracked as he spoke. “So, was your dad at Persephone, Anita? Because if he was, there’s a good chance he killed mine.”

Wraith felt like she’d been punched in the chest.

She knew Elliott had lost his dad sometime during the war, but Elliott had never talked about him much. Whenever he had, it was in vague terms, punctuated with _I was too little to remember._ Evelyn had always seemed to carry that loss more heavily than he had—Wraith knew it was the whole reason she’d started working for the Militia. She had no idea Elliott’s wounds ran just as deep.

But there he was, standing in front of her, jaw clenched, looking on the verge of tears while talking about a father he’d never gotten the chance to know. Because of _standard policy_.

Bangalore, at least, had the good sense to choose her words carefully. “I am sorry,” she said slowly, “that your dad got mixed up in that. But we did what we had to do.”

Wraith didn’t need the voices to tell her what to do this time.

“I think you should go,” she said, making her voice cold, leaving no room for argument. She kept one hand on Elliott’s wrist, squeezing it tightly. _Let me handle this_. “You’ve said your piece. Now _go._ ”

_You’ve done enough here._

Wraith wasn’t sure how deep Bangalore’s respect for her really ran, especially not when the other Legend had made more than a few quips about Wraith’s mental state in the past. But between whatever scraps of respect were there, the look on Elliott’s face, and the fact that the mood was going from _irritated_ to _hostile_ , there was just enough pressure to get Bangalore to stand, toss some money on the bar, and walk out without a word.

Wraith breathed a sigh of relief and turned to Elliott. “You okay?”

Elliott didn’t answer. He was staring after Bangalore, as if considering going after her himself. Wraith squeezed his wrist. “Elliott,” she said. “Look at me.”

He did. It took a second, but she saw the intensity bleed away. In its place…pain, plain and simple. “Uhm.” Elliott pulled his hand away to rub at his eyes. “Shit.”

“It’s okay.”

“ _Shit_.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, no, no, you didn't…uhm…” He looked at the door for a second. “C-could you stay out here, wait for my mom? Let her know I’ll, uhm, I’ll be right out?”

“Yeah, of course.” Her first instinct was to go with him, to try and comfort him, but if he needed to do this alone, she would respect that. It would be hard, but she’d respect it. “Do what you have to do.”

He got out from behind the bar and speed-walked towards one of the back rooms.

He wasn’t back out by the time his mom showed up. Evelyn walked over to Wraith, her gaze scanning the room. “Hi, Evelyn,” Wraith said quietly.

“Hi,” Evelyn replied, sounding distracted. “Elliott’s working tonight, right?”

“Yeah, he…” Should she tell her? Tell her even a little? No, Wraith decided, she’d let Elliott handle it. “Went out back for something. I think he took his phone with him. I’ll try texting him.”

 _Evelyn’s here_ , she tapped out. Her hands were shaking slightly as she did. She wasn’t sure why—it wasn’t _her_ family that had been torn apart, not as far as _she_ knew. Maybe seeing Elliott like that, hearing his story, had stirred up some deep memory.

Elliott emerged from the back as if nothing had happened, not even a sign of tears on his face, beaming brightly at his mother. “Hey, Mom,” he said, circling around the bar to give her a hug.

Evelyn returned the hug. “Hey, Elliott…sorry, you know how your uncle is.”

“Yeah, I know, I get it from your side of the family…” Elliott kept a hand on her shoulder as he pulled away. “Hey, listen, uhm, I put out Chris, but…I wanted to wait until you got here for Dad. Do you want me to…?”

Evelyn looked immediately, _deeply_ sad. It mostly showed in her eyes. But, much like her son, she had a talent for smiling through the pain. “Yeah, we can…set a place for him. Thank you, _mijo_.”

It was then Wraith realized that the feeling in her gut wasn’t sympathy. It was guilt, almost. Guilt, though she had no idea why.

Of course, Elliott knew that Wraith was mostly likely an IMC citizen. It was the best explanation for how she’d ended up in a mental hospital in their territory, short of her having been kidnapped from Militia space. He didn’t seem to mind; the one time it had come up, he said she was basically honorary Militia after everything they’d put her through.

She’d accepted that, until that moment, as the sinking feeling that she’d done something wrong but couldn’t remember _what_ sank into her bones.

Usually, being around Elliott and his mom made her feel more in the present—made her okay with being just Wraith, Wraith as she was here and now. But now, watching them set out a place for _Raleigh Medina_ , watching them mourn together in silence, her past loomed over her, a void of mystery that had never felt more terrifying.

If Bangalore’s family could’ve hurt him so deeply, who knew what hers could’ve done?

**Author's Note:**

>  **Battle of Dauntless:** Not a canon fight, not based on any canon. The IMC refusing to surrender ground to the Militia just felt like something they'd do. (Also I know this one isn't war crime related, just thought I'd clarify.)  
>  **Forced Labor/Human Experimentation:** CANON, mostly. Ash uses Militia POWs in her IMC-funded test chambers, and during the Effect and Cause mission you can see a section of the IMC encampment labeled "[Site I, Slave Camp III](https://screechthemighty.tumblr.com/post/187846726953/wouldnt-be-their-first-war-crime)." There's also laptop files in that mission that indicate human testing using the Ark, but it's not stated if they used POWs, so mark that one down as "inspired by canon."  
>  **Angel City Penitentiary Being a Dive:** Non-canon, only loosely based on the canon of the IMC being terrible to their POWs.  
>  **Testing Facilities on Typhon:** Canon, see above.  
>  **Battle of Aquarius:** Non-canon, but based on a canon instance. Sloane (a mercenary under IMC employment) kills POWs in the second game. Titus isn't an actual character in the games, but is based on the standards set by Blisk, Spyglass, and Marder.  
>  **Battle of Demeter:** Canon, the Militia really did blow up a good chunk of the planet while only aiming to blow up one facility/ship (whoops).  
>  **Battle of Troy:** VERY canon, yes the IMC DID kill a lot of civilians and Blisk was directly involved.  
>  **Battle of Angel City:** Non-canon, mostly headcanon. You do fight in Angel City in game one and additionally it's a multiplayer map, but I have my own timeline of Angel City being A Disaster that has real no canon basis.  
>  **Battle of Persephone/Battle of Black Sands:** Non-canon and not based on any specific canon instance. It's more so based off of the general attitudes towards warfare seen by the IMC across the games (see above and also Cooper's monologue in the opening cut scene of Titanfall 2).  
>  **Defense Front:** Non-canon, but I was already toying with the idea of there being other, more extreme factions on the "screw the IMC" side so this was my chance to implement that headcanon.  
>  **Defense Front's Raid on Gridiron:** Not canon, not based on anything, but I imagine that it must've been hit more than once during the war.  
>  **Also Of Note:** We don't have the canon about whether Elliott's dad died during the war, or what side his family was on (all his official bio says was that his brothers died during the war), but since they never cited him as IMC and he speaks about the IMC very impersonally when talking to Bangalore in s5, I've always assumed they were Militia.
> 
> Also, yes, the title is a Hamilton reference.


End file.
